Moving from an apartment to our new house
I had a really bad experience using Inner City Moving. Paul was ok for responding to my emails and phone calls before the move but that changed after the move was complete. Here is a list to point out how bad the move went.
1. His employees showed up in a U-Haul truck for the move. I thought I had hired a professional company that had their own trucks.
2. We have 3 matrasses, one bed base. All of them were put in the truck without covering them with a blanket. All of them were filthy and very dirty from sliding them in to the truck. All 3 matrasses are high end, not cheap ones.
3. An office desk is broken
4. One of our wall pictures (nice piece of art) was not covered with a blanket. Luckily it did not get damaged
5. Our washer has a big dent and big scratch on it. It is a high end Maytag washer.
6. The moving was 6.6 km apart and Mark said they would not charge for the second trip but in the end I paid for all the hours they spent on the job
7. Before the move Paul mentioned that his guys eat on the road while driving from the old address to the new address. It is a 6.6 km distance between the 2 addresses and the first run took them 1 hour form leaving from the old place to the new place. They called me 3 times for directions and our new place is easy to find. They did not come prepare with a map/gps. They told me that they got loosed.
8. I notice that Paul’s employees were not properly equipped. When they were handling the appliances by hand I asked if they did not have the proper straps. Mark said “our boss is too cheap so we use brute force”. When I called Paul after then he said that his truck broke down and that the equipment was not moved over to the U-haul truck. Later on in another call Paul said that he did not have equipment
9. They did not bring any tools and I had to provide my tools for items that needed to be taken apart.
10. I had them move my winter tires and they put one of them on the fridge without covering the fridge with a blanket. Another one was put on the range which damaged one of the elements. Both the fridge range had black tire marks on top and finger prints all over them.
11. Twice I overhear Mark saying that he had too much Budweiser the night before
12. We had some window coverings disappear on the moving day but I don’t have proof that they took them. I can only image that they did.
Paul’s employees did a really bad job at handling our belongings and it was obvious that Paul’s employees receive no training whatsoever unlike his website claims. Granted that they worked very hard on a hot summer day but that does not make up for the lack of training. After multiple emails and phone calls Paul finally sent out a cleaning company (over a month after the move) to clean our matrasses. The cleaning company did a good job. Before sending out the cleaning company Paul had the nerve to ask me if I would pay them and he would reimburse me, to which I said no. Paul promised to email transfer $100 for the washer damage which took almost another month and a few emails and follow up calls. At that point I did not care for the $100 but it was a matter of principal. Paul refused to acknowledge all the other damages I have pointed out. I would never use Inner City Moving again and neither do I recommend them to anyone.
**Update Nov 22 2012
I just notice Paul's response to my comments. I could go on and write a long response but instead I will let you, the consumer, choose whom to believe.
btw...our washer is 3 years old and it fits very well trough the door...oh my I had to laugh when I read Paul's response :-)
- Approximate cost of services:
- $1,100.00
- Company Response
This customer was told in advance of the move, that the assigned truck had mechanical problems and as a result, we quickly substituted a U-Haul truck so that we could ensure his move was carried out as plan. This was a loss ICM obviously had to absorb and no costs were passed to customer.
Complaint#2: The customer refused to pay for the mattress bags and wanted them for free. He was told in full that it was likely his mattresses could be soiled without the bags, but he refused to purchase them. We always do our best to ensure all walkways are cleared and covered, but some dirt did get on his mattresses. As a professional courtesy, we cleaned all 3 mattresses.
Complaint #3: the office desk was already disassembled when we got there and we just moved the pieces of wood and their accompanying screws and doles.
Complaint #4: as the customer states, the art work was not broken or scratched.
Complaint #5. The 10 year old high end may tag washer did get a scratch on the side only because the laundry room had been renovated and the new door way was too small we had to squeeze it trough. Again, we warned him that due to the state of the new laundry room and the small, non-standard sized door, damages were likely. He wanted the machine moved, so we did our best and we did minimize any damage to his machine. We did not observe any dents on the machine, but we did pay him $100 after the move to compensate for the scratch.
Complaint #6: the original arrangements called for a 24 ft moving truck we rented a 26 ft u-haul truck. We discussed all the arrangement prior to the move and due to the amount of stuff he had, a 2nd load was required. It is unreasonable to expect that for free.
Complaint #7: as required by law, after every four hours, every worker is entitled to a break and the movers took a brief break between the moves.
Complaint #8. not true. There was sufficient and professional equipment available to my employees.
Complaint #9: We carry sufficient tools for the average moving job. His equipment required specialized tools, which he provided. We used them and professionally moved his belongings.
Complaint #10: winter tires are usually stored in plastic bags, not in my moving blankets.
Complaint #11. I have a zero tolerance when it comes to drinking on the job but i can't control what employees do on their own time.
Complaint #12. We did not steal his custom window coverings.
To summarize: we investigated all this customers concerns and we feel that they were all dealt with fairly. We professionally cleaned his soiled mattresses (although he could have taken the preventative step of purchasing the mattress covers); we paid him $100 for the scratch on his washing machine; and given the conditions (over 40 degrees Celsius that day), we moved him quickly, courteously and professionally.
I considered that we had resolved all the issues that concerned this customer. If he wishes to contact me, I would be happy to discuss his issues further.